Vasculopathy of Aging and the Revised Cardiovascular Continuum
There have been attempts to explain the process of developments in overt cardiovascular disease, resulting in the presentation of the classic cardiovascular disease continuum and the aging cardiovascular continuum. Although the starting points of these two continua are different, they meet in the midstream of the cycle and reach a consensus at the end of the process. The announcement of the aging cardiovascular continuum made both continua complete, explaining the cardiovascular events in patients without atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with aging. Impairment of the vascular structure by pulse wave and reflected wav...
Source: Pulse - August 19, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Weight Loss, Dietary Intake and Pulse Wave Velocity
We have recently conducted a meta-analysis to determine the effect of weight loss achieved by an energy-restricted diet with or without exercise, anti-obesity drugs or bariatric surgery on pulse wave velocity (PWV) measured at all arterial segments. Twenty studies, including 1,259 participants, showed that modest weight loss (8% of the initial body weight) caused a reduction in PWV measured at all arterial segments. However, due to the poor methodological design of the included studies, the results of this meta-analysis can only be regarded as hypothesis generating and highlight the need for further research in this area. ...
Source: Pulse - July 18, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
The Role of Monitoring Arterial Stiffness with Cardio-Ankle Vascular Index in the Control of Lifestyle-Related Diseases
Arteriosclerosis is a major contributor to cardiovascular diseases. One of the difficulties in controlling those diseases is the lack of a suitable indicator of arteriosclerosis or arterial injury in routine clinical practice. Arterial stiffness was supposed to be one of the monitoring indexes of arteriosclerosis. Cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is reflecting the stiffness of the arterial tree from the origin of the aorta to the ankle, and one of the features of CAVI is independency from blood pressure at a measuring time. When doxazosin, an α1-adrenergic blocker, was administered, CAVI decreased, indicating that arter...
Source: Pulse - June 19, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test in Patients with Hypertension: Focused on Hypertensive Response to Exercise
The cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) provides integrative exercise responses including the cardiovascular, pulmonary and skeletal muscle systems. It can be used for the identification of myocardial ischemia, evaluation of exercise capacity and tolerance, and the assessment of chronotropic competence or arrhythmias with the addition of ventilatory and gas exchange measurement information. Among them, hypertensive response to exercise (HRE) is known to be related with higher risk of future heart failure and cardiovascular events in patients with hypertension. Proposed underlying mechanisms of HRE can be found in ventricu...
Source: Pulse - June 6, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Brachial-Ankle Pulse Wave Velocity: Myths, Misconceptions, and Realities
A variety of techniques to evaluate central arterial stiffness have been developed and introduced. None of these techniques, however, have been implemented widely in regular clinical settings, except for brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). The most prominent procedural advantage of baPWV is its ease of use, since it only requires the wrapping of blood pressure cuffs on the 4 extremities. There is mounting evidence indicating the ability of baPWV to predict the risk of future cardiovascular events and total mortality. Additionally, the guidelines for the management of hypertension in Japan recommended the measuremen...
Source: Pulse - June 3, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Prognostic Significance of Regional Arterial Stiffness for Stroke in Hypertension
Background: Hypertension is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease. It has been reported that arterial stiffness is related to cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in hypertensive patients and that the physiological evaluation of arterial stiffness may assist clinicians in the early detection of atherosclerosis. Summary: It has been demonstrated that increased arterial stiffness is an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease, including stroke. Arterial stiffness is associated with structural changes in the brain. However, the stiffness responses of muscular arteries are different from those of elastic art...
Source: Pulse - May 27, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Contents Vol. 2, 2014
Pulse 2014;2:I-IV (Source: Pulse)
Source: Pulse - May 20, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Arterial Stiffening and Clinical Outcomes in Dialysis Patients
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients. Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) is more efficient to handily assess arteriosclerosis than aortic PWV. The cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is also a novel blood pressure-independent arterial stiffness parameter. In dialysis patients, both baPWV and CAVI are increased compared to general subjects. Several studies have demonstrated that increased baPWV is associated with carotid atherosclerosis and diastolic left ventricular dysfunction in hemodialysis (HD) patients. In addition, higher baPWV is related to all-cau...
Source: Pulse - May 13, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Lung Disease and Hypertension
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are at a high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Airflow limitation is a predictor of future risks of hypertension and cardiovascular events. COPD is now understood as a systemic inflammatory disease, with the focus on inflammation of the lungs. An association between inflammation and sympathetic overactivity has also been reported. In this article, we review the association between chronic lung disease and the risks of hypertension, cardiovascular morbidity, the underlying mechanisms, and the therapeutic approach to hypertension and cardiovascular diseases in ...
Source: Pulse - May 6, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
The Pulse of Asia, May 22-23, 2015, Shanghai, China: Abstracts
Pulse 2015;3:48-87 (Source: Pulse)
Source: Pulse - April 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
The Ten-Year History of the Asklepios Study
The Asklepios study started 10 years ago when 2,500 subjects were screened between 2002 and 2004. And all of the 90+ publications we have for the moment are from those cross-sectional data. This is called round 1. Since 2011, in round 2, all of those patients have started to come back for a 10-year follow-up. At this moment, approximately 1,750 of those patients have been seen. The patients were followed by general practitioners (GP), and the GP again provided the information about what has happened with the medical status in the past 10 years including drug therapy: not only the drugs that they are taking at the moment we...
Source: Pulse - April 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Key Points of the Japanese Society of Hypertension Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension in 2014
The Japanese Society of Hypertension (JSH) published the new JSH guidelines for the management of hypertension in 2014, which is the revision of the JSH guidelines of 2009. The primary objective of the guideline is to provide physicians the standard treatment strategy of hypertension to prevent the hypertension-related target organ damage and cardiovascular events. The management of hypertension should be performed in hypertensive patients with a blood pressure of ≥140/90 mm Hg. As Asians have a higher prevalence of stroke than of coronary artery disease and stroke is more steeply associated with the level of blood press...
Source: Pulse - April 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
The Novelty of the 2015 Guidelines of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology and the Taiwan Hypertension Society for the Management of Hypertension
The prevalence rate of hypertension in Asian countries grows faster than in other parts of the world, where stroke exceeds coronary heart disease in causing morbidities and mortalities. The optimal management of hypertension is therefore an especially important task in Asia. In a transparent and rigorous guideline development process, the most updated information available on the management of hypertension was summarized in the 2015 Taiwan Society of Cardiology (TSOC)/Taiwan Hypertension Society (TSH) hypertension guideline. In contradiction with the ESH/ESH joint hypertension guidelines and the 2014 Joint National Committ...
Source: Pulse - April 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
The Korean Society of Hypertension Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension in 2013: Its Essentials and Key Points
The Korean Society of Hypertension published new guidelines for the management of hypertension in 2013 which fully revised the first Korean hypertension treatment guideline published in 2004. Due to shortage of Korean data, the Committee decided to establish the guideline in the form of an ‘adaptation' of the recently released guidelines. The prevalence of hypertension was 28.5% in the recent Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2011, and the awareness, treatment, and control rates are generally improving. However, the risks for cerebrovascular disease and coronary artery disease which are attributa...
Source: Pulse - April 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
Chinese Hypertension Guidelines
According to the 4th National Nutrition and Health Survey in 2002, the prevalence of hypertension in China was 18.8%. Although there are no recent updated nationwide data, it is believed that the prevalence of hypertension has increased substantially in the past decade up to more than 200 million hypertensive patients in the populous country of China. To fight against the growing risk of hypertension, three Chinese hypertension guidelines were compiled in the past two decades, in 1999, 2005, and 2011. The current guidance document for the management of hypertension was named ‘2010 Chinese hypertension guideline', but it ...
Source: Pulse - April 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research
